Cute characters, I really like the poses you did for your characters it really helps give them extra life. Concept wise I think they work really well, however technically they need a lot of work.
The poly density on the faces is really, really, high, and looks really uneven in comparison to the rest of the model. You could get rid of at least half of those polygons and still keep the same shape. If you got rid of a lot of the extra polygons then the normals can do more work than they are doing now; right now you can barely tell the low and low+normals apart on the characters with exceptions on a few areas.
The anatomy on the dog seems off, I'm not an expert on dogs but it feels very tubular with not much consideration for the anatomy.
If you take a look at this, it will really help you with joints for your characters and help get rid of extra edge loops. http://wiki.polycount.com/LimbTopology
The eyes on the boy are alright, although the structure around them is almost non-existent, they work better in the action shots than the pose with him just standing there. However the eyes on the dog don't seem right, like he has human eyes, it kind of works if you are going for stylization but I still feel like it needs to be messed with more.
The diffuse on the boy could use some more love, subtle things like dirt on the shoes, fades, tears, stains will help give him some more history make everything less clean. You material definition also seems kind of same-y across the board, making adjustments in the spec map might help fix that.
tbh, depending on what you're going for and what you're using it for, that poly density seems fine. Characters such as Lightning from FF13 have a massive difference of poly density when comparing the face to the body simple because of the close-up cutscenes.
If you intend to make some animations and/or close ups of the face then i'd keep the tri count like this as that's the main reason for upping the tri's on the face.
These days, there is pretty much no reason to drop tri's especially at this level, game characters are using this tri-count or higher currently and next-gen is just around the corner. Looking at this it's more of a display piece rather than a game character anyway, and the fact that it's conforming to current game gen characters when looking at tri count and tri distribution, it shows a knowledge in this field when making models for both display and in-game.
Very nice characters
But yes i do agree with the textures on the boy, especially the face. Maybe some more detailed skin tones and possibly freckles to add some warmth to it.
This is what I though too. I put more polys in the face because I was expecting to animate a range of facial expressions. I assumed the rest of the body would use a less, except around the joints. Although, after looking at that joint tutorial page, I see that I am adding an extra edge loop in the center of the bend. From now on I'm just going to leave that an open face on the inside so it can deform properly.
Replies
The poly density on the faces is really, really, high, and looks really uneven in comparison to the rest of the model. You could get rid of at least half of those polygons and still keep the same shape. If you got rid of a lot of the extra polygons then the normals can do more work than they are doing now; right now you can barely tell the low and low+normals apart on the characters with exceptions on a few areas.
The anatomy on the dog seems off, I'm not an expert on dogs but it feels very tubular with not much consideration for the anatomy.
If you take a look at this, it will really help you with joints for your characters and help get rid of extra edge loops. http://wiki.polycount.com/LimbTopology
The eyes on the boy are alright, although the structure around them is almost non-existent, they work better in the action shots than the pose with him just standing there. However the eyes on the dog don't seem right, like he has human eyes, it kind of works if you are going for stylization but I still feel like it needs to be messed with more.
The diffuse on the boy could use some more love, subtle things like dirt on the shoes, fades, tears, stains will help give him some more history make everything less clean. You material definition also seems kind of same-y across the board, making adjustments in the spec map might help fix that.
I hope this helps you out
If you intend to make some animations and/or close ups of the face then i'd keep the tri count like this as that's the main reason for upping the tri's on the face.
These days, there is pretty much no reason to drop tri's especially at this level, game characters are using this tri-count or higher currently and next-gen is just around the corner. Looking at this it's more of a display piece rather than a game character anyway, and the fact that it's conforming to current game gen characters when looking at tri count and tri distribution, it shows a knowledge in this field when making models for both display and in-game.
Very nice characters
But yes i do agree with the textures on the boy, especially the face. Maybe some more detailed skin tones and possibly freckles to add some warmth to it.
I'd do something about the dog's fur and the boy's clothes.